It boils down to one central tenet: Teach your kids to think through problems and innovate solutions on their own.

The Andrakas offer a lot of smart advice about raising kids who think independently in their interview with Nosta, which can be found here.

Here are a couple of practical takeaways from the interview:

Encourage your kids to focus on a single project: "When you focus just on a specific goal or problem and 'wrap your head around the goal' it opens up all kinds of creativity and problem solving," the Andrakas said.

Don't have too many rules: Rules can kill creativity, so the Andrakas keep it simple: "Treat people with respect, do your homework, be honest and try to be safe."

Set expectations early: The Andrakas have set the expectation that their kids would attend college since they were in elementary school.

Be proactive: Don't wait for opportunities for your kids to appear — seek out extracurriculars and higher level competitions that the school might not even know about.